Posted by Seth on April 30, 2009 under Trip Reports | 
Sliding down the descent line the wreck slowly comes into focus. I reach the top of the wreck, ironically the bottom of the overturned ship, and notice one of the other divers calling me over to the edge; clearly he’s found something that I need to see. I let go of the line and swim across the 30 feet or so to the edge of the hull. Peering over the side I see the cargo of the ship – large cement pipe sections – and then the reason for my buddy’s call. Baby was headed right at me and she didn’t look all that happy.
Baby is a six foot long Morey eel that is a resident on the wreck of the Sea Emperor. The ship was purposefully sunk along the south Florida coast several years ago as part of an artificial reef project. It capsized during the (not so) controlled ditching and now rests in 75 feet of water just a few hundred yards off the coast of Pompano Beach. The cement pipe sections that were initially loaded into her cargo compartments spilled out as the boat sank, creating the basis for a decent artificial reef near the wreck. The site is home to several “special” treats, including a couple of Goliath Grouper (~300-400 pounds), rays in the 10 foot range and Baby, along with many other “regular” reef fish typical of the region.
Like most dive trips that I’ve done solo, the first 30 minutes or so on the boat are critical. That is when you meet the others who are out diving and get paired up with a buddy for the trip. I met Kyle and a couple of his buddies (bringing donuts certainly helped break the ice) and we chatted a bit. Eventually we agreed that I could tag along with their crew which turned out to be a great opportunity.
Kyle & company were quite experienced divers and very comfortable underwater. That was good news in more way than one. They had brought along some frozen baitfish for the dives, figuring that it would help ensure more lively interactions with the sea-life. They were certainly correct on that front. Having the fish helps us coax a couple spiny lobster out of their coral hideaways and also helped bring Baby out into the open water. It also brought a reef shark out for a passing view, but the shark chose to leave us alone. Only Baby really took the bait, so to speak, interacting quite readily with us during the 20 minutes or so we spent on the wreck. She was certainly not shy about trying to get at the lunch being offered and didn’t seem to care too much who was holding it; she came after all of us for it.
Seeing a six foot long eel swimming right at me, teeth bared, was quite a shock. I actually freaked out enough that I somehow managed to wriggle out of my weight belt – a very dangerous proposition while 50 feet below the surface. Fortunately my training kicked in, I remembered that the weights were more important than just about anything else and I managed to fin down to where they had fallen and grab them, stabilizing my position in the water. The bad news was that I was now seventy feet below the surface with my camera in one hand, by weight belt in the other and an eel swimming at me with its teeth rather prominent in the whole scene. It was also at this point that I truly realized the good fortune I had to be diving with these guys. One of them had seen my weights drop and was already moving into position to help keep me underwater. Plus they were the ones that got Baby into the open. Well done on both fronts.
The dive on the wreck was actually our second dive of the day, though it was intended to be our first; when we got out there initially it was too crowded with other divers so we did our dives out of order that day. Or first dive was on a small reef system called Crab Cove. The reef system runs north/south along the coast with scattered coral heads and a sandy bottom. There were lobster, angelfish (a favorite of mine) and even a blowfish among the coral but the colors were rather subdued, similar to what I’ve come to expect from diving in Florida.
More significantly of note on our boat was a group of divers from Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (S.U.D.S.). This is a group focused on helping amputee veterans remain connected to the world through diving. The group was truly amazing, both the guys diving and the woman who organized the trip for the group. One of the divers was a very recent amputee – it has only been a couple months for him – but they were out there having a phenomenal time underwater just like I was. It didn’t take much for them to fit fins onto their prosthetic limbs and get out into the water, and they were truly enjoying the experience. It was rather uplifting to see that scene. I now have a new charity to support as I was incredibly impressed by the whole bit of what they were doing.
Diving in Ft. Lauderdale means picking either a dive shop or a boat operator. In many cases the dive shops just pay for your space on the boat if they don’t have a boat of their own so it may be that you are diving with a wholly different operation. It pays to do a bit of extra research when choosing a dive shop/operator to make sure that you understand exactly who you’ll be out on the boat with and who is actually responsible for what is going on. In my case the dives and the boat, operated by South Florida Diving Headquarters out of Pompano Beach, were OK, but neither was particularly great and there were enough rough edges that I’d be willing to find a different operator next time. Getting yelled at for mis-navigating a reef where we went exactly where they told us to go wasn’t particularly fun, nor was the fact that my rental gear almost didn’t make the boat.
South Florida may be most famous for its sun and surf, but the underwater experience is lively as well. There are natural and artificial reefs running from Miami to Boca Raton with enough options along the way to keep anyone busy for several weeks of daily diving. With a half day to spend underwater I only experienced a couple dive sites, but it was enough to make me appreciate the options available in the area and certainly enough to whet my appetite for future dives in the area.
Posted by Seth on April 29, 2009 under News |
The Q1 financial numbers that came out from the legacy carriers last week were miserable. Just awful. Most are still suffering from their fuel hedge bets and some are also just losing money on top of that. Things are not good in those quarters. But they are doing well with realizing revenues for incremental fees, things like checked baggage and preferred seating have done very well for the carriers that charge for those things. So no harm in trying to run up the score on that front, right?
Delta and US Airways plan to find out in the coming months with a couple new fees announced this past week. US Air is now going to allow their customers to pre-pay for checked baggage fees online rather than having to pay at the airport. Nice, right? Well, sortof. The kicker is that if you don’t pay in advance online you pay $5 extra per bag for the privilege of checking them in. The fees rise to $20 and $30 at the airport rather than the current $15 and $25. This new scheme goes into play on July 9.
Delta is going even further, at least figuratively speaking, with their baggage fees. They will start charging fees on international itineraries for the checking of a second bag. At $50/bag they expect to realize $1MM in revenue from this move. That would be 20,000 fees paid. As elites are exempt those 20,000 fees have to come from folks who are not necessarily particularly loyal to Delta. Since Delta is the only carrier with such a charge on their books, it remains to be seen if Delta will suffer on the booking front because of this. The new fee goes into effect on July 1, just in time for the peak summer European travel season. At least Delta is exempting tickets purchased prior to the announcement. They haven’t always done this so it is nice to see them show a bit of decency in their policy there.
At a time when demand is low doing anything to turn customers off from your service seems foolish to me. I guess time will tell how well things play out for them.
Posted by Seth on April 28, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’m not quite sure what “spirit” they are hoping one catches when flying with them, but if my trip this past weekend is any indication I think it is something akin to misery and self-hatred. I’d heard the stories and the warnings from my friends, but I hadn’t ever flown with Spirit Air and wanted to experience it for myself. I think I should have just trusted them and saved myself the pain.
The flight booking process was not particularly bad. Sure, there were up-sell options all over the web page and they default to including the travel insurance in the ticket so you have to know to uncheck that box, but otherwise it isn’t so horrible. They even showed the options for upgrade to the “Big Front Seat” during the regular booking process so I had the choice right then to see how much extra it would cost and make that decision right there (no, it wasn’t worth it to me at the time, though I probably should have in retrospect). I got the nice reminder email 24 hours prior to my flight offering online check-in and that worked quite well. Up until this point the process was actually rather similar to any other flight I have booked and flown in the past several years.
The airline’s main operations are from their hub in Ft. Lauderdale. Most carriers go to some effort to ensure that their hub operations are as good as possible, both in customer service and amenities available at the airport. If the terminal at Ft. Lauderdale is any indication of the quality of other facilities I would be very, very scared. There was a Nathan’s and a tiny, dark bar with decent (airport) prices on beer. Otherwise the terminal was overcrowded with passengers waiting for delayed flights and generally not much space to move around. I’m sure that part of that is based on the facilities that they have available to them from the airport authority, but I just felt dirty sitting there. Not particularly pleasant. At least the view of sunset was nice (photo above).
They do not assign seats in advance unless you’re willing to pay somewhere between $7-20 for that luxury. Since the website said that I’d be able to choose a seat at check-in for free I decided to save my money. Of course, at the time of check in I still was only offered paid options for seat bookings so that wasn’t so useful. I did end up with an aisle seat, but it was in row 24, one of the many rows on their planes that have even less legroom than normal a knee and soul-crushing 30”. I actually felt badly for the woman in the seat in front of me who had to suffer with my knees in her back for the hour or so we were on the plane. I spent most of the in-flight time with my legs turned out into the aisle so that I had a chance of still feeling them at the end of the flight. It was not fun.
Fortunately for me my flight was only 37 minutes long. The short duration meant that there was no beverage or snack service on the flight. Sure, one could ring the call button and ask the flight attendant for a drink or snack, but since everything on board is for sale I wasn’t really all that motivated to try that aspect of the service.
Despite the short scheduled flight duration there was some extra time spent waiting for customers on a connecting flight so that added to the time on the plane, but overall it was short enough that it was survivable. But I also know that the discounted price was not worth it to me for the cramped and dirty seats and somewhat uncertain reliability of the carrier (lots of delayed flights that night with no particularly apparent reason). The flights would pretty much have to be free to get me back on one of their planes, and I’m not 100% certain that would be enough. But at least I tried it once and now I know what not to do next time.
Posted by Seth on April 27, 2009 under Trip Reports |
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| Freddie Awards emcee and all-around frequent traveler guru Randy Petersen prepares to take the stage at the 21st annual awards ceremony |
The purpose of last weekend’s trip (as much as I can claim it had a purpose) was to attend the 21st annual Freddie Awards in Ft. Lauderdale. The awards ceremony is run by the folks at Inside Flyer and is designed to recognize and celebrate the loyalty programs of the airline and hotel industries. It operates in association with the Frequent Traveler Marketing Association annual meeting so that brings a lot of folks in to town for the event. Most are associated with one of the loyalty programs, one of the retail reward providers (the folks from SkyMall were a major sponsor, for example) or the folks who actually design and build programs and operate them for the carriers (more on that in another post). And then there was me and about 75 other frequent travelers. Inside Flyer is kind enough to open up the award ceremony to the travel community at large, and that means I got to attend and rub elbows with all of the above industry professionals. I was able to ask a lot of questions and even get answers to some of them. It was very interesting.
Oh, and they gave out some awards, too. Some of the results were very logical and some were quite surprising. Here are some thoughts on a few from each of those categories.
In the Americas Alaska Airlines won the award for program of the year. This was not a huge surprise to me. Their program is great for folks who fly on a variety of carriers (as long as they are an Alaska partner) and that partner network is pretty broad. There is definitely value to be had there.
The surprises (to me) came from the wins in the programs outside of the Americas. Etihad (United Arab Emirates), Virgin Blue/V Australia (Australia) and Jet Airways (India) all won awards; some of them won more than one. These programs all seem to have moved away from what would be considered a traditional reward structure in the United States or Western Europe. Travel rewards are still a significant part of the programs, but the programs are increasingly augmenting their programs by offering retail merchandise and other benefits to their members. The retail rewards may not have the flash and glamour of long-haul premium cabin rewards (generally the best cash value rewards out there) but they are something that they customers can get with smaller numbers of points, without inventory limitations and generally they seem much more readily accessible.
Ten years ago frequent flier programs were much more focused on providing incentives to continue or increase travel on a particular carrier, but they were targeted at the folks who were already traveling a lot. Today the programs have a much broader target audience and that has significantly changed the focus and the types of rewards out there. And if the results from the Freddie Awards are any indication, the masses are not looking at travel rewards as their main redemption target. That is good news for the carriers – the retail rewards are generally actually profitable for the carriers to redeem – but bad news for travelers looking for the high value travel rewards. As more programs shift towards cash-value type reward schemes the premium tickets become ridiculously expensive, even if the inventory is greater.
US-based programs are acknowledging this development in the market in a big way. Virgin America built their eleVAte program around this concept and every indication I’ve see so far suggests that jetBlue’s new incarnation of their TrueBlue program due out later this year will follow this path as well. The legacy carriers are rolling out shopping malls, auction sites and and other retail redemption options. Marriott has long had retail redemption as a prime option for their points and American Express’s Membership Rewards program is geared toward merchandise redemption almost more than they are towards travel rewards. Things are not moving quite as quickly in this direction for the legacy programs, but they definitely recognize the value of this approach and they are certainly happy to get the points off their books while not losing money doing so.
Such a shift does pose a significant risk to the programs, particularly the airlines. For several carriers the best income stream they have these days is their credit card partners and the revenue they realize from selling those points to partners. Billions of dollars are moving around on those transactions. Should the public decide that the value of the points no longer justifies collecting them the airlines will suffer as the credit card companies buy fewer and fewer miles. Of course, with more and more people choosing to redeem their miles for merchandise and the like the risk may not really be so significant. But it is definitely something the carriers have to account for.
The industry is definitely showing trends of shifting and the proverbial writing may be on the walls, or at least starting to appear. Of course, in the mean time I’ll still be redeeming my miles for more travel. After all, I don’t really want more “stuff;” I want the adventures and memories that travel offers me.
Posted by Seth on April 24, 2009 under News |
Sure, it is a couple years behind schedule, but better late than never, right? Over the past week there has been a ton of activity at Boeing’s Everett assembly facility, all focused on getting the 787 Dreamliner out of the hangar and into the air for its first flight. That flight is now expected to occur within the next week according to the rumors flying around Seattle’s northern suburbs.
In the past week the stress test plane (ZY997) has gone through the last of its static tests, deflecting the wings almost 20 feet from normal. In normal flight operations the deflection is only about 5 feet and the 20 foot deflection is actually beyond the max that the plane is rated for. Still, there is likely to be yet another test that goes even further, though Boeing still has not stated whether they will test deflection to failure. They did that for the 777 and the video of the wings bending and then shattering is truly phenomenal.
In addition to the static stress tests Boeing has also been putting the first plane to fly (ZA001) through its paces with software tests designed to simulate all aspects of flight without actually starting the engines or getting the plane off the ground. The so-called “gauntlet test” was completed successfully and was the last step necessary to complete before the plane rolls out of the hangar and onto the taxi-way of Everett Field and then, shortly thereafter, into the skies over Washington.
There are a few other test cycles that will need to be completed before the plane is truly ready to head airborne, but those mostly involve the engines and other systems that cannot be run while the plane is inside the building. Scuttlebutt in the area says that Rolls Royce, the engine provider of the initial test & delivery planes, was in Everett last weekend very quietly installing their final test rigs on ZA001. With those in place there is basically nothing stopping Boeing from putting the bird in the sky as soon as they are ready.
It will almost certainly roll from the hangar to the parking position on the field under the cover of darkness – Boeing does that for all their planes so that they don’t freak out drivers on the highway that the ramp crosses just outside the hangar. But I’d expect that first flight will happen in daylight hours. It appears from everything I’ve heard that Boeing does not intend to issue a press release in advance of the flight so there won’t really be any true warning that it is going to happen. At this point I expect that a number of plane spotters and photographers are just setting up camp outside the Everett facility. I know I would be if I lived out that way.
Posted by Seth on April 23, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’ve always understood that airplanes follow relatively defined routes as they traverse the world. It is much easier to make sure that planes don’t collide with each other when they fly on defined “highways” in the sky. But today is the first time I remember ever seen a traffic jam on that highway.
Somewhere around Washington, DC is where I started noticing the other planes around us. The first one was a US Airways A320 headed the opposite direction so quickly that I barely could process what was happening before I could even think about grabbing my camera. And by then it was long gone. There were a few others, too, including a Southwest 737 that I assume was headed to Baltimore and what I believe is an Air Jamaica plane headed to either Dulles or (less likely) New York City. 
There was also the 737 that was just off our left side and a bit low for about 20 minutes. Eventually it slowed down (or we sped up) and then it was gone. It was fun to watch, however.
It is often easy to think that you’re all alone up in the air (albeit with 100-300 others) stuck in a long metal tube hurtling through the air at 500+ miles/hour. Today’s flight was a pleasant reminder that there are thousands of others doing the same thing at the same time, and that you might see them if you stare out the windows a bit.
Posted by Seth on April 22, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’ve had a trip planned for this weekend for a few months now. I knew that I would be going to Florida for the Freddie award ceremony. And I knew that I’d have to stick around until Saturday for another meeting associated with the event. What I didn’t really know were the rest of the details for the trip. And up until early this week I still hadn’t finalized those details. It turns out that the downturn in the economy has opened up at least one major benefit for the traveling public: prices are not spiking very close to the departure date like they used to. This allows customers to delay spending money on a ticket until closer to the actual trip, which is a very good thing for the customer. Of course, it has a negative impact on the merchants.
Airlines in particular are keen to sell tickets as far in advance as possible. They get to sit on the cash until they actually fly you somewhere which is very useful for their balance sheet. Some airlines, such as Continental, actually use that cash as part of the assets used to secure fuel hedges, so the need for that cash in their coffers is very real. But advance bookings are down – a LOT. Folks aren’t buying the seats. And so the prices on many flights are staying low rather than increasing. In fact, the cost for a flight to get home from Tampa next Tuesday actually dropped over the weekend rather than increasing as I expected it to. So by procrastinating I actually saved $20 on that deal, though I did forego collecting the miles on that part of the weekend’s travels. Still, not a bad trade-off to me.
Hotels are the other major group that are struggling with bookings, but the prices there are not reflecting the impact quite as much. Still, some aggressive and educated use of Priceline to bid on hotels can solve that problem very much in the consumer’s favor. I paid about a third of the going rates for the hotel rooms I’ll be staying at during most of the weekend. Not too shabby.
Anyways, the final details of the weekend are pretty entertaining. Over a six day/five night span I’ve four different hotel stays, thirteen flights, five airlines, almost 10,000 miles in the air and somewhere around 30,000 frequent flyer miles earned. Oh, and I’ll also re-qualify for top-tier status on my alternate carrier for next year. That means I’ve hit top tier elite on two airlines this year before the end of April. Oh, and almost all the flights this weekend will be in first class though I only paid for coach on all of them. I even have a day off while in Florida where I’ll probably spend some time diving and relaxing on the beach. Not bad at all.
Posted by Seth on April 21, 2009 under News |
Look for big changes in service this summer with Continental and their 737-900ER aircraft. The 737-900ER is the newest addition to the Continental fleet and it is also the first to be equipped with the LiveTV system that they are having installed on their domestic fleet. More notable, however, are the new routes that Continental is looking to open up with the aircraft later this summer.
Most significant is a scheduled August 1, 2009 return to Maui for the carrier with the return of the LAX-OGG route, operated by the 737-900ER. At the same time LAX-HNL, currently operated by a 757-200 with the BusinessFirst seat configuration in the forward cabin, will also switch over to a 737-900ER operation. These flights will be staffed for pilots out of the Cleveland base. Continental will also take advantage of the over-water certification necessary for the Hawaii operations to add Newark-based trans-Atlantic service on the 737-900ERs, though this service will be limited to military charters, at least for now. Those aircraft can easily reach Iceland as well as the three destinations that Continental currently serves in Ireland and Northern Ireland, so there is always a chance for some crossover there.
This opens up a huge can of worms on the Hawaii front. For many years now all service to and from Hawaii has been marketed as BusinessFirst and, more recently, BusinessFirst Light. This has allowed Continental to limit upgrades and demand a premium fare structure in most cases for the flights. With the introduction of a “normal” premium cabin the primary excuse for no free elite upgrades seems to have disappeared. That could induce a major change in the flow of customers through Continental’s system headed to Hawaii as folks angle for the free (or cheaper) upgrade to the islands.
Interesting times indeed…
Posted by Seth on April 21, 2009 under News |
The dream of high-speed rail transit in the USA has been unrealized for years. Even with the Acela service in the north-east there just isn’t anything comparable to a true high-speed service available. And that is truly unfortunate as there are regions that could benefit from such service. It almost certainly would not work nation-wide – the United States is just too large – but there are areas where it could make sense. It looks like the US government is going to tease us a bit more on this front with the latest version of the economic stimulus bill that has been proposed. It includes $5 billion for infrastructure development and maybe $8 billion more of additional rail developments.
So why am I calling it a tease? Well…
First up, there are ten different routes/regions being defined:
- A California line from the San Francisco Bay Area south to San Diego via Sacramento and Los Angeles.
- A corridor linking Eugene and Portland, Ore., with Tacoma, Seattle and Vancouver.
- A South Central network linking Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Little Rock.
- A Gulf Coast line from Houston to Atlanta via New Orleans, Mobile and Birmingham.
- A Midwest network based at Chicago with high-speed lines to Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville.
- Florida Corridor service linking Orlando, Tampa and Miami.
- A Southeast Corridor from Washington D.C. to Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia, Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Jacksonville.
- A Pennsylvania line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via Harrisburg.
- New York State high-speed rail connecting New York City to Albany and Buffalo.
- A New England project linking Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield, New Haven and Albany.
Of these ten, only a couple rally seem viable to me. I think that the California line, the Chicago hub and maybe the New England and South Florida lines could work. The others are pipe dreams at best. But if you want to actually get funding for a project in the US government you have to include spending in states where it will not actually work, just to secure the money for the places that actually have a chance to succeed. That’s why Amtrak is still operating in forty-something states.
And, for reasons that are beyond comprehension to me, the most likely viable corridor for success is missing. There is nothing listed there for the Boston – New York City – Washington, DC corridor. Sure, there is already Acela on that route, but that can hardly be considered high-speed rail. It operates on shared track with the rest of the train traffic in the region meaning that it runs at the slow speeds in areas where commuter rail is operating. That is an impossible solution for true high-speed rail. If they are thinking that Acela is successful enough that we don’t need to improve it then the rest of the projects are doomed to failure as the benchmark is being set way too low.
Finally, the money involved in the proposals – $13 billion – really isn’t enough to make anything happen. Yeah, it is a big number. There are a whole lot of zeros involved. But capital infrastructure projects are ridiculously expensive, especially for something like high speed rail. The most recent major project to be near completion is the Beijing – Shanghai line in China. It is ~1,400 kilometers (~870 miles) of track and the capital cost is about the same as what has been proposed in the United States for a vastly greater scoped project. The island nation of Taiwan invested more in their high-speed network to cover an area smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined. Just acquiring right-of-ways to build track is going to be obscenely expensive in the USA.
I love the idea of investing in infrastructure, especially in mass transit infrastructure. But if we’re going to do it we should actually invest enough money to accomplish something and focus the efforts in a place where it can succeed. But the United States government doesn’t do that sort of thing, so I guess we’re stuck with what we’ve got.
Posted by Seth on April 20, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I was not really looking forward to the new Yankee stadium. I didn’t mind the old one all that much. I’m never going to buy a luxury box nor am I really desperate for more premium seats. Sure, the old stadium was a bit “worn in” but that was part of its charm. And it didn’t seem all that dysfunctional to me. So sinking $1.5 billion into a new stadium – much of it supported by my tax dollars – didn’t really seem like a great thing to me. Still, the stadium was built and I don’t really have much choice about the situation now. So if I want to see baseball that means a visit to the new building at 161st Street and River Avenue. Despite the overcast skies and cool temperatures we mustered the energy to pay a visit to the park this afternoon and took in a game. Overall it was nice, but not $1.5 billion nice.
The first thing you notice exiting the subway and heading up River Avenue is that the building is clean – shockingly so. That is nice, though I doubt it’ll last too long. Still, it does look pretty gleaming there in the Bronx. The bad news begins as you move to head inside. For starters, they have the typical sign about items prohibited “for your safety.” Firearms are listed just above beach balls on the list. Yup, beach balls are apparently hazardous. They do allow you to bring your own water into the facility, but only if you tell the guy asking that the bottle is unopened. Considering that a 20 ounce bottle in the stadium is $5, I’d bring one next time.
The old Yankee stadium had a glorious entry concourse. As you entered you could see the bright green grass of the field and you really felt like you were at a ballpark. I think we passed six different Yankees merchandise stores before we saw the green of the field this afternoon. The “cathedral of baseball” is now a shopping mall. So sad. The great hall actually is architecturally rather stunning, so it isn’t all bad. But it doesn’t make up for the other shortages that you experience.
We did a lap around the building and saw the view from most angles, high and low, first base and third base lines and the outfield. The good news is that almost every seat can see the whole field. The bad news is that there are a bunch that cannot. The Mohegan Sun Casino Bar that they built out in the middle of Center Field juts out so much from the bleacher seats that they are obstructed view. Depending on just how close you are to the bar you could be missing a full half of the outfield from your view. Not good. At least they sell those seats cheap ($5, I think). You can sortof see how bad those seats are in the photo below. 
The big screen in the outfield is rather impressive. It is outright huge. But for some reason they didn’t now replays for the vast majority of plays. I think there were maybe three replays all game long. And considering that there were a couple very close plays (including a HR that actually went to official review) as well as a couple great defensive plays, a replay or three on the big screen would have been nice for the fans. They seemed to be too bust showing ads that had been sold to one company or another instead. Gotta pay for the new digs somehow, right?
We ended up with seats in the wheelchair row on the 300 level. The fine print says that they reserve the right to evict you and take legal action against folks who fraudulently obtain seats in that area, so that was a bit disconcerting, but after a couple calls to the box office and a stop by the in-stadium box office we were told not to worry about it. We had the companion chairs in that area, along with all 12 others in the row, so the seats were quite comfortable and we could move them around to get comfortable. A very nice touch. And the view was pretty good, too. It is steep up there and not too many rows in the 300 level (it is the section just above the red display screens in the picture above, with the wheelchair row at row 8 of that section).
There also were a LOT of empty seats in the stadium today. They were pretty much all in the very expensive seats down at the bottom tier. One of the sections – 029 – actually only had one single person in it. That was pretty sad. At least the affordable seats were pretty crowded with folks who actually care about the team rather than buy on an expense account.
And, the most important part of a trip to any new stadium: a review of the food and beverage options. There are many.
The main beer options are Budweiser and Miller Lite. One or the other is available at all the “main” food vendors built in to the building but the carts often do not have beer. There are also a few “Beers of the World” booths scattered about. At least one is located behind section 313 and that is where I spent a fair amount of time this afternoon. Available there were the following bottled beers: Amstel Light, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Moon, Bud Light Lime, Corona, Heineken, Heineken Light, Hoegaarden, Peroni, Stella Artois, Yeungling and O’Douls. All the bottled options are $8.50. They also have 24 ounce draft options of Beck’s and Stella Artois for $11. At the regular food vendors the Bud or Miller Lite draft cups are $6, or – the best value in the park – a 24 ounce draft in a collectible cup for $10. The vendors walking around selling beer had Miller Lite, Bud and Bud Light for $9.
On the food front they have a number of local franchises operating (sorry, I didn’t write down full details on everything):
- Brother Jimmy’s – Pulled Pork Sandwich ~$10
- Moe’s Southwestern Grill – Chips & Queso ~$6; Nachos ~$10
- Carl’s Cheesesteaks – Cheesesteak (American cheese or dry; onions or not) $10.75
- Popcorn, Indiana – Popcorn, I suppose
- Nathan’s – Hot Dog $6; Fries $6.75; many other options, too.
- Kosher Catering – Hotdog ~$6; Knish $4.50
- Carvel – Ice cream, I suppose
- Famiglia – Pizza, but I didn’t pay attention to how much they cost
There were also Hebrew National hot dogs for $5.50 with generally much shorter lines than what Nathan’s had. Oh, and thanks to the new NYC law they post the calorie count next to all the food items. Those Nathan’s fries weigh in at 1236 calories. Splurging for the cheese sauce at that point adds a relatively insignificant 105 calories to that total and only 50 cents to the cost. Vendors walking around had Nathan’s hot dogs for only $5, a dollar cheaper than at the stand, but I don’t know that they are the same size. I also saw a guy deliver a cotton candy on a silver tray to someone sitting in the super-expensive seats right behind home plate. That was strange.
A few other random observations:
- The closed captioning system on the big screen has an entry for “(crowd boos)”
- They have an option for texting guest services if you have a problem
- They played klezmer music when Jeter is at the plate
All in all, it was an enjoyable afternoon. The new stadium is nice. Very nice. But I’m still not convinced that it was a good idea to spend $1.5 billion on the new facility, especially if it means that they aren’t going to be able to sell the seats or that they have to charge so much for a beer.
Posted by Seth on April 17, 2009 under News |
It is very rare that a corporate espionage story makes the news and even less likely that I’d care at all. But a lawsuit filed yesterday did catch my attention. Starwood has filed suit against Hilton alleging corporate espionage and theft of trade secrets, all over Hilton’s plans to launch their new Denizen brand. The guy responsible for the new brand, Ross Klein, used to work at Starwood and now he works at Hilton. And when he left his old job he walked out the door with 8 boxes of papers, apparently contracts and market research, among other things.
I would be pretty pissed, too, if I were Starwood. After all, they’ve enjoyed a relative monopoly on the luxury/style segment with their W brand over the past many years. But does that mean it is corporate espionage that resulted in a competitor starting up a similar brand? Continental has made a huge name for itself by offering tons of transatlantic air service on 757s, planes often considered too small to serve the market. But they now offer service to twenty-something cities in Europe from their hub in Newark, mostly on 757s. And they get a LOT of business on those flights. And then the guy responsible for that plan went to work for Delta. The following summer Delta added a ton of flights to similar destinations in Europe. Corporate espionage? Or just a guy who knows what he is doing moving to a new company?
Ultimately this is likely going to come down to a boring trial with lots of testimony about the files that were taken and very little about the actual details of the brand. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to watch.
Hudson Crossing Travel Industry Insight: Starwood sues Hilton over Denizen – "Zengate
Baby is a six foot long Morey eel that is a resident on the wreck of the Sea Emperor. The ship was purposefully sunk along the south Florida coast several years ago as part of an artificial reef project. It capsized during the (not so) controlled ditching and now rests in 75 feet of water just a few hundred yards off the coast of Pompano Beach. The cement pipe sections that were initially loaded into her cargo compartments spilled out as the boat sank, creating the basis for a decent artificial reef near the wreck. The site is home to several “special” treats, including a couple of Goliath Grouper (~300-400 pounds), rays in the 10 foot range and Baby, along with many other “regular” reef fish typical of the region.
Kyle & company were quite experienced divers and very comfortable underwater. That was good news in more way than one. They had brought along some frozen baitfish for the dives, figuring that it would help ensure more lively interactions with the sea-life. They were certainly correct on that front. Having the fish helps us coax a couple spiny lobster out of their coral hideaways and also helped bring Baby out into the open water. It also brought a reef shark out for a passing view, but the shark chose to leave us alone. Only Baby really took the bait, so to speak, interacting quite readily with us during the 20 minutes or so we spent on the wreck. She was certainly not shy about trying to get at the lunch being offered and didn’t seem to care too much who was holding it; she came after all of us for it. 
The dive on the wreck was actually our second dive of the day, though it was intended to be our first; when we got out there initially it was too crowded with other divers so we did our dives out of order that day. Or first dive was on a small reef system called Crab Cove. The reef system runs north/south along the coast with scattered coral heads and a sandy bottom. There were lobster, angelfish (a favorite of mine) and even a blowfish among the coral but the colors were rather subdued, similar to what I’ve come to expect from diving in Florida. 
More significantly of note on our boat was a group of divers from Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (S.U.D.S.). This is a group focused on helping amputee veterans remain connected to the world through diving. The group was truly amazing, both the guys diving and the woman who organized the trip for the group. One of the divers was a very recent amputee – it has only been a couple months for him – but they were out there having a phenomenal time underwater just like I was. It didn’t take much for them to fit fins onto their prosthetic limbs and get out into the water, and they were truly enjoying the experience. It was rather uplifting to see that scene. I now have a new charity to support as I was incredibly impressed by the whole bit of what they were doing.
Diving in Ft. Lauderdale means picking either a dive shop or a boat operator. In many cases the dive shops just pay for your space on the boat if they don’t have a boat of their own so it may be that you are diving with a wholly different operation. It pays to do a bit of extra research when choosing a dive shop/operator to make sure that you understand exactly who you’ll be out on the boat with and who is actually responsible for what is going on. In my case the dives and the boat, operated by South Florida Diving Headquarters out of Pompano Beach, were OK, but neither was particularly great and there were enough rough edges that I’d be willing to find a different operator next time. Getting yelled at for mis-navigating a reef where we went exactly where they told us to go wasn’t particularly fun, nor was the fact that my rental gear almost didn’t make the boat.
